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It is an easy and fresh salad and I remember enjoying it a lot during meals at my parents and at my grand-parent’s place.

I am writing here with the recipe of the balsamic vinaigrette that I am using but you can also use a lemon vinaigrette (just replace the balsamic vinegar with lemon juice).

Another option is the one that my brother and my sister were enjoying: instead of a vinaigrette, they would just add sugar to the shredded carrots. I was never tempted by it but they really enjoy it. And would still have it as a starter for lunch/diner.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon chopped fresh garlic

2 medium size carrots, peeled and shredded

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon(pinch) ground black pepper

Preparation:

In a small bowl, whisk the balsamic vinegar, mustard, and olive oil together until the dressing is completely blended. Stir the dressing into the shredded carrots. Sprinkle the carrot salad with the salt, pepper, and garlic and mix together.

Winter is not completely over but I can feel how everyone around me would like to see spring come up.
Last week, few people including me got lighter sweaters and jackets out again but it was still pretty cold and windy, which doesn’t help. We all got back into our winter jackets, putting our spring ones on hold for a little bit more.

It is nice cooking according to the season and we used to have this salad during winter in my family when I grew up.

You can add or reduce quantities based on your preferences and a good balance between the ingredients. The apple brings a freshness to balance the “heaviness” of the gruyere and walnuts.
You can also put tomatoes instead of apples and use another kind of cheese, like blue cheese, Gorgonzola or Roquefort, just to name a few.

This salad can be served as an appetizer (antipasti) or can be an entree on its self, for which i add the bacon.

Preparation

Wash and chop the endives crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices.
Peel and cut the apples.
Cut the gruyere in small pieces.

In a bowl, mix the endives, apples, gruyere and walnuts. Add vinaigrette. I like to do the basic vinaigrette with olive oil, mustard and balsamic vinegar. For this salad, it is also nice to add some honey to the vinaigrette.

Just before serving, cook the sliced bacon in a pan. You don’t need to add olive oil in the pan, the fat of the bacon will do the job when reducing.

Put the salad on each plates and add a little bit of bacon on top of each before serving.